Discussion

23 thoughts on “Nude with a fan”

Caught by a catchy title and more than a little curious … I like it~!

Abstract—many years ago at a party (navy) in Australia at around three in the a.m. there were just a few of us stayers left; mine hostess (a mature lady whose husband waaaay outranked me) asked with twinkling eyes for my interpretation of a particular abstract on the wall. Not being into abstracts I nonetheless gave an honest answer and told her that to me it looked like a distant fire at night in a pine plantation. She was delighted with that.
At her suggestion I went over and read the title: ‘Forest Fire’ … I remember that when I first went in it had looked like just so many splops and splats of colour; I learned something that night.

Well, me too (although as I say I draw the line at elephant dung). I wrote this in memory of a friend’s dad who used to have long arguments with me about how rubbish abstract art was (because I quite liked some of it). He agreed in the end that what he hated most was the pretentious names. And that he would be a whole lot happier if artists just called their work Black square with a bit of a squiggle, or ‘Bit of a mess’. He died a while ago, and I do miss those arguments.

Generally uttered by Chief Engineer Miles O’Brien. I almost fell off the sofa when I heard him say it. But then, I know a lot of engineers and they say it all the time. So it does add a touch of versimilitude to an otherwise unconvincing narrative, as they say (although who ‘they’ are, I don’t know). Am I rambling? Nurse!